1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a valuable ticket and a ticket printer and, more particularly, to a valuable ticket in which ticketing data is magnetically recorded and printed and a ticket printer for issuing such a ticket by recording and printing ticketing data on it.
In airline and other industries, a reservation and ticketing system for airline or other tickets, called a computer reservation system or CRS for short, has been built up so as to deal with intensive passenger-conscious services. A problem of vital importance for such a system designed to accommodate to a recently increasing number of passengers is to make its services (for reservation and fare adjustment) efficient.
For that reason, the introduction of airline tickets provided with magnetic stripes so as to control these services in bulk, called automated ticket/boarding pass or ATB for short, is now spreading drastically. These tickets are required to have high storage stability of printed data and to have the ability to be printed easily as well. A ticket printer for them, on the other hand, is required to make ticket management easy and to render ticketing less time- and labor-consuming as well.
2. Description of the Related Art
Tickets issued from a conventional ticket printer have made use of plain paper and been printed on wire-dot, electrophotographic and other printing systems. The wire-dot printing system involves some grave problems such as (1) loud noise, (2) low print resolution and (3) slow printing speed, and the electrophotographic printing system has again some serious problems such as (1) an increase in hardware size, (2) a rise in hardware cost and (3) susceptibility to environmental changes (printing is difficult at high humidity in particular). In recent years, hardware working on a thermal-dot printing system making use of a heat transfer ink ribbon has been developed.
This thermal-dot printing system making use of a heat transfer ink ribbon makes no noise, has a high print resolution and a high printing speed, achieves reductions in hardware size and cost and dispenses with any maintenance, and so lends itself well to issuing airline tickets.
However, some serious problems with the conventional thermal-dot printing system making use of a heat transfer ink ribbon are that (1)the heat transfer ink ribbon costs much and incurs some considerable expense for maintenance, and (2) the heat transfer ink ribbon is troublesome to handle, because it must be replaced by new one whenever a certain number of prints are obtained.
Consequently, it is now desired to use printing hardware working on a direct thermal printing systemxe2x80x94in which case heat-sensitive paper is directly printedxe2x80x94and making no use of any heat transfer ink ribbon. In the case of airline tickets that are a sort of securities, however, there are the following problems.
(1) Generally, the thermal-printing paper is a paper that is obtained by coating a heat-sensitive layer comprising a leucodye, a color developer and a binder onto a paper substrate at a thickness of a few xcexcm. When heated by a thermal printing element, the leucodye and color developer are fused to give rise to a color-developing chemical reaction. However, this color-developing zone, when stored over an extended period, disappears, thus rendering the thermally printed paper invaluable.
(2) A printed thermal-printing paper, when coming into contact with an organic solvent such as alcohol, a plasticizer and oils and fats, breaks up the chemical reaction, causing the color-developing zone to disappear.
Conventional airline ticket printers have been broken down into two types, one in which a stock of precut ticket blanks are fed out one by one for magnetic recording and printing, and the other in which a stock of continuous paper blanks is magnetically recorded and printed.
The former airline ticket printer has an advantage in that the precut ticket blanks can be easily magnetically recorded and printed. These tickets are a sort of high-priced securities, and so there is a need of managing the blanks therefor. However, not only is it difficult to manage such separate ticket blanks, but they are also likely to be missing by wrongdoing or in error. In addition, much difficulty is encountered in finding them, when missing.
The latter airline ticket printer has an advantage in that the continuous ticket blank can conveniently be managed, because whether or not something wrong is occurring can be easily determined by finding the presence of cutouts. However, it is difficult to make magnetic records and prints on a continuous form of ticket blank, and this form of ticket blank costs much time and labor, because it is required for an operator to separate it into individual tickets and hand them to passengers.
An object of the invention is to provide a valuable form of ticket which, even when printed on a direct thermal printing system, does not erase what is printed.
Another object of the invention is to provide a ticket printer for issuing a valuable form of ticket which, even when printed on a direct thermal printing system, does not erase what is printed.
A further object of the invention is to provide a ticket printer which enables ticket blanks to be easily managed and which is capable of issuing a valuable form of tickets in a separate form.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a ticket printer which is so compact in size that it can be located between desks.
A valuable form of ticket according to the invention enables ticketing data to be magnetically recorded and printed, and includes a base, a heat-sensitive layer applied on one side of the base, a protective layer applied on the heat-sensitive layer and a magnetic recording layer applied on the other side of the base.
Because the protective layer is applied on the heat-sensitive layer, the valuable form of ticket according to the invention can be protected against coming into contact with a solvent, a plasticizer, and so on. Besides, the ticket of the invention can be used in the form of a security, because the color-developing zone is by no means erased, even when formed on a simple direct thermal printing system, and so is high in terms of storage stability.
Because the magnetic recording layer is applied on the side of the base that is opposite to the side thereof on which the heat-sensitive layer is formed and so the heat-sensitive layer is all available in the form of the side to be printed, it is possible to make effective use of the ticket that has a limited area. With the ticket according to the invention wherein the magnetic recording layer is not affected by the heat of a thermal recording element and so the data magnetically recorded there is invariable, it is possible to make sufficient prints and record the magnetic data certainty.
A ticket printer according to the invention comprises a stock holder unit for holding ticket blanks, each including a heat-sensitive layer and a protective layer on one side of a base and a magnetic recording layer on the other side of the base, a thermal printer unit for thermally printing the heat-sensitive layer of each ticket blank fed out of the stock holder unit and a magnetic recorder unit for magnetically recording data on the magnetic recording layer of the ticket blank.
According to this ticket printer, it is possible to issue valuable tickets having high storage stability, because they can be protected against coming into contact with solvents, plasticizers, etc., due to the provision of the protective layer on the heat-sensitive layer, and because their color-developing zones are by no means erased, even when formed by the thermal printer unit that makes use of a simple direct thermal recording system.
Another ticket printer of the invention is designed to print and magnetically record ticketing data on a ticket blank and thereby issue a valuable ticket, and comprises a ticket blank holder for containing a continuous form of medium that is separated along perforations into individual ticket blanks, a pre-feeder unit for feeding the continuous form of medium from the ticket blank holder and cutting and separating the medium into individual ticket blanks, a magnetic recorder unit for magnetically recording ticketing data on a magnetic recording layer of each ticket blank cut by and fed from the pre-feeder unit, and a printer unit for printing ticketing information on the magnetically recorded ticket blank.
This ticket printer makes magnetic recording and printing easy and dispenses with separating tickets after issuance, because, even when a continuous form of medium is used, it is cut through the pre-feeder unit into individual ticket blanks. And these individual ticket blanks are magnetically recorded and printed, and so the valuable ticket blanks can be easily controlled as a continuous form of medium and, besides, can be magnetically recorded and printed individually.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.